Final Fantasy general

Yeah that's one reason I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about XIII-2 even before I saw it. You are stuck with your playable characters for several long hours and if you have a decent sized cast of diverse characters, you have a greater chance of not hating your life as you play the game.

If you have only two characters and you like neither...well, you're screwed.

Serah is cute and all but Noel does not strike me as very appealing. I liked having my ensemble cast in XIII. Even though I hated Lightning for a long time and wasn't too keen on Feng, I had the others to keep my interest up.

Out of curiosity, what was everyone's preferred party in XIII? Ya know, when you could actually choose your party 30 hours into the game?

My favorite characters were Snow, Hope and Vanille so I used them. I think it was a pretty decent party although there are benefits to having a more physical team from what I've seen on YT.

Does XIII-2 really tweak the battle system? It looks kinda identical so far.

I must say that I enjoy the multiple responses thing that I've been seeing in XIII-2. I don't know if they actually do anything but it's a nice touch.

edited 22nd May '12 12:01:18 AM by Nikkolas

I've played all of the Star Ocean games. Plot and characterisation are generic, but I adore the gameplay. So much fun.

I dunno, people compained about the We Cannot Go On Without You but the way the fixed it was clunky at best (Plus you only had two characters so what was the point?). The monsters are also annoying to use and annoying to catch (If I wanted Pokemon level frustration I'd go play some Pokemon).

My favorite party was Light/(Sazh or Snow)/Van, depending on whether I was going all out or being cautious.

This is true but there is the one where they find out they're in a video game...

Good stories mostly come in one off RPGS, some Final Fantasy, Wild AR Ms and Tales of.

edited 22nd May '12 12:05:41 AM by fourteenwings

Light/Fang/Hope

I just really liked that team. Don't know why.

I loved that Plot Twist.

I just held my mouth open for a couple of minutes while I was in awe of the writers meta-bility.

Snow/Hope/Vanille. I think that was it. Though it may have been Fang/Hope/Snow.

My favorite RPG story is Xenogears.

SO is apparently kinda the same in the sense that it's a larger sci-fi setting but confined to a single planet. Or so I've heard.

Also I was totally right about XIII's message that the fal'Cie were super powerful gods. I mean, just look at the datalog entry:

"Fal'Cie are an existence beyond human comprehension, possessed of incredible magic power."

So yes, the game does indeed shoot its own message in the foot very badly. Beings beyond human compression my ass. Apart from Barthandalus they were all just overly conceited toasters.

edited 22nd May '12 12:45:56 AM by Nikkolas

@ Jigaboo: Same here.

x8 The most interesting story in the Star Ocean series is 4, if only for how horribly written it is(especially the English dub).

x6 Probably because they cover every paradigm efficiently.

2 characters + monsters?

Okay, yeah, that game did give you the previous playable cast, too, but they had certain restrictions that made the new guys more usable as the game wore on.

But yeah, I like VI for its large playable cast. And V, for having a cast with extremely varied skills. Though, VI's variable cast made it a bit hard for them to write scenarios for later in the game, where any party was game.

edited 22nd May '12 5:35:55 AM by Enlong

But Emil and Marta actually did stuff that was cool and fun! Even their Bad Ending was nicely executed, can't say the same for XIII-2.

I dunno, I like both big casts (VI) and small ones (X-2), I tend to prefer small ones because they avoid x2/3/4 the amount of level grinding.

edited 22nd May '12 7:06:24 AM by fourteenwings

That's my problem with FFXII. Don't get me wrong, I love the game for its battle system, but I can't seem to leave characters behind while levelling. Balthier/Ashe/Vaan is the main party. Now normally, you leave the back up party a few levels behind....but I can't do it. (/ _ ; )

Ahaha, I'm having the same problem in FFXII. Basch, Ashe, and Balthier are approaching level 30 currently, while the others languish at level 19 or so. (At least they still get LP so they don't lag behind there? I haven't had to use the backups much, anyway.)

Hey, that was my old main team! IIRC, I didn't like Vaan because of his inverted abs, Penelo because her outfit just bothered me, and Fran cause she looked better off on an issue of playboy.

Then I came to my senses(?) and switched a character every time he/she levelled up.

And because I'm OC about balance and organising stuff σ(^_^;)

I think I went through XII with a main party (Penelo/Basch/Ashe) and the other three characters remained at level 7 or so...

I remember becoming intimately familiar with Balthier's "Is that your best?" very early on when I first got the game.

Yep, same here. I use Basch, Ashe and Penelo and let the others rot.

There really isn't any reason not to.

I just really don't like it when all the main party members get killed off, and I have to pray that the phoenix Downs of the reserve party make it in time.

That happened to me a couple of times with the demon wall (Your party members have been sent to ANOTHER DIMENSION) but eventually Basch managed to one shot it (I didn't say I don't level grind like crazy...)

I picked Penelo, Basch and Ashe because I liked Penelo, Ashe was the main character and Basch is really nice to look at, not that Balthier isn't, but I like Basch better.

-scandalised- Hey, Balthier's hot accent trumps all

The (first) Demon Wall was the only part of the game so far when I've brought in a reserve. Launched a big quickening chain, Ashe got sent to another dimension, swapped in Vaan with a full MP bar, launched another quickening chain, was finally able to kill it before it squashed me.

My party is Ashe because she's more important than Vaan and Penelo and far less annoying (well, Penelo isn't that annoying but apart from being kidnapped she's done nothing of importance so far), Basch because he's BASCH FON RONSENBERG OF DALMASCA, and Balthier because he's British Han Solo the suavest mofo.

I liked Vossler...if only because of that death quote of his that had me in stitches every time. But aside from that...Guest characters can dieeeeee! Except Larsa and his infinite supply of potions.

Are you dissing Reddas?

edited 22nd May '12 8:52:58 AM by MarkIV

No I meant it literally. They have their own separate gambits which sometimes mess up a strategy I have laid out. σ(^_^;)